As part of the project, the paper highlighted various NCAA violations reported by Ohio State over the past several years, and one in particular caught my attention.

The paper reported a violation that took place on April 26, 2008, when Gee bought dinner for a football player and that player's girlfriend, brother and sister-in-law. The fact that an athlete's family members received a free meal was the violation, the Dispatch wrote, continuing that "the football player couldn't play in a game until his brother repaid the cost of their dinner, $204. He did."

One point of the Dispatch report is that so much information is withheld by Ohio State, it's difficult to get a clear picture on what actually happens with some of these violations.

Unless Gee ate dinner twice on this particular day, I know this one.

Last May, I spoke briefly with Gee about the Ohio State football players - like Laurinaitis and Malcolm Jenkins - who had decided to return for their senior seasons. Gee was appreciative, and mentioned that he had gone as far as taking Laurinaitis out to dinner a couple weeks earlier, on the day of the NFL Draft, when Laurinaitis could have been moving on to his new career. It was Gee's way of saying thanks for coming back.

The date of the draft was April 26.

I then spoke with Laurinaitis about the dinner in August during preseason camp. As it turned out, this was just a bit of the reporting I did for my preseason story about the return of the OSU seniors, and it wound up not making my final story. And not knowing that others were at the dinner, I didn't consider the possibility that it may have been a violation.

Here's what Laurinaitis said in August about that April dinner, when he said he ordered what he called "delicious" prime rib at Mitchell's Steakhouse in Columbus.

"Being the president of the university, a guy of his standing, he doesn't need to do that by any means, but it meant a lot," Laurinaitis said.

"It was really an eye-opening experience. Dr. Gee has done everything and met everybody. Unbelievable guy, and truly I think this is a friendship that is going to continue on.

"He has always e-mailed me whenever I accomplished something on the field or in the classroom, saying congratulations. And he called when I decided to come back, saying how proud he was of me to make a decision like that and what a good example I was. I think it's a friendship that is going to continue to go on. I told him next year on draft day, if I have the opportunity, I'll take him out to dinner and return the favor."

Laurinaitis spent draft day this April in Minnesota with his family, so I'm not sure if the favor has been returned. But if it was, a pro buying dinner for a president at least isn't against NCAA rules.

I don't find anything nefarious in a violation like this, though I'm surprised that the university president would slip up like that. I don't think the possibility of a free family dinner is what brought Laurinaitis back to Columbus. And as I understand NCAA rules, Gee is allowed to take out Laurinaitis because I believe he does the same with other members of the student body at times, so this would not be a violation. But family members can't receive anything except in very specific circumstances, and this meal didn't fit that.

When it comes to stuff like this, I always think that advantages given to recruits or their families - the people you are attempting to lure to your program - are more of an issue than things given to current athletes or their families, who are already in the program. I don't mean cars or cash or houses for their parents, but minor things like this dinner.

For instance, little perks like this could help sway a recruit, and then once he picks the school, the violation is reported and the money paid back - but the team already has accomplished the goal of snagging the recruit.

I also think the NCAA guidelines set up awkward social situations at times - I can buy you dinner, but not you and you and you. But you also can't have university personnel taking players and their families out to dinner all over town every day. So the NCAA rules are in place for a reason, and in this case, a mistake was made.

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